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Dale Steyn had some time on an off day, and fans on social media made the most of it by asking him all their questions

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Dec-2019Dale Steyn’s recovering from a side strain in Australia, ahead of his stint with Melbourne Stars. On an off day, he had plenty of time to answer questions on Twitter. Fans got straight to the point – who does he think is the best quick going around?

Pat Cummins, he can buy all the drinks

— Dale Steyn (@DaleSteyn62) December 21, 2019

Tight call…. probably gana go with India

— Dale Steyn (@DaleSteyn62) December 21, 2019

We couldn’t help ourselves either. RCB fans, that’s your weekend made.

— Dale Steyn (@DaleSteyn62) December 21, 2019

I was sleeping, didn’t know till the morning, happy days

— Dale Steyn (@DaleSteyn62) December 21, 2019

Yorker or top of off?

Oooof… I was a test cricket not so long ago so I’d have gone with a top of off, but being a out and out 20/20 bowler now I’m going with that Yorker

— Dale Steyn (@DaleSteyn62) December 21, 2019

QDK. The best.

— Dale Steyn (@DaleSteyn62) December 21, 2019

Dale Steyn the coach, once Dale Steyn the player is done?

All in good time, but I think I’d enjoy helping out and still being part of my favorite cricket team

— Dale Steyn (@DaleSteyn62) December 21, 2019

Steyn AND AB de Villiers at a World Cup in 2020? We’ll have some of that.

Why not ey

— Dale Steyn (@DaleSteyn62) December 21, 2019

Who else would like to see this play out?

He’d never catch me!

— Dale Steyn (@DaleSteyn62) December 21, 2019

Nostalgia. Lots of it.

Haunting

— Dale Steyn (@DaleSteyn62) December 21, 2019

Of all things from an illustrious career…

Retirement

— Dale Steyn (@DaleSteyn62) December 21, 2019

And finally…

Big chance! Eng weren’t convincing in NZ, that’s not to say they not good, I’m just saying they didn’t look the part. Under Bouch I feel we have it covered, but it’s gana be exciting

— Dale Steyn (@DaleSteyn62) December 21, 2019

On paper, Jason Holder looks like an obvious weak link in West Indies’ team. But his fighting qualities kept his side just about in the ascendancy

Jarrod Kimber at Headingley27-Aug-2017Jason Holder was out for a golden duck, Stuart Broad never even bothered to look behind and appeal. Jermaine Blackwood and Roston Chase had gone in quick succession, and it was Holder’s job at Edgbaston in the second innings to stand up. He didn’t.Holder was in early on day three at Headingley after Shai Hope’s great innings was ended first ball of the day by James Anderson, then Shane Dowrich was out second ball of the day. West Indies had been talking about fight all through this Test, and after yesterday, where they battled all day to get in front, two balls into the day they were losing it.Second ball he faced, Holder drove one off the back foot to the boundary. And then he didn’t score for nine balls until he lifted Anderson over mid-on to the rope. Then more dot balls and a two, before three straight boundaries off Stuart Broad. The upshot of which was that, seven overs and four balls since he came to the crease, West Indies had scored 42 runs and gone beyond a 100-run lead.The last of Holder’s boundaries was a cover drive so full of grace, the pages of coaching manuals felt under-dressed in comparison. It looked so perfect, but it wasn’t from a perfect cricketer.***Holder played as the fourth seamer at Edgbaston, the major reason for doing so was to keep the scores low. But all game he struggled to fulfil his role. He looked as if he was battling injury and even had to abandon bowling mid-over at one stage because of cramp.Today, West Indies’ seamers served up eight leg-side deliveries in their first seven overs. And that is not counting the short balls; this was just the length balls. Their line was so poor, it seemed like a plan to get England’s batsmen out strangled down the leg side, except for the lack of fielders in those positions and the fact that they also bowled everywhere else to go with it. England hadn’t got away from them, but they would have been put under as much pressure had they been chased by a newborn lamb sucking on a lollipop.Holder brought himself on; he bowled a maiden, his second over went for one. After six overs he’d allowed only nine runs, the seventh over was even better. The scoreboard pressure got to Cook as he kept trying to push at Holder, ball after ball, beaten and worried, he eventually pushed too hard at one and was caught behind. Holder had beaten Cook in a battle of patience.***In 2015, Jason Holder’s average delivery speed was 82mph; at Edgbaston, he couldn’t have reached speed like that in a fighter jet. Every ball that came out his hand seemed to be pushing through a swarm of pace-hating gnats who were determined to thwart its progress. When you start at 82mph as a Test-match seamer, slowing down is not really a good idea.Today, Holder was slightly up on pace from the last Test, only by two or three miles, but from his first spell at Headingley, he looked a better bowler. The ball that made him look his absolute best was when he came around the wicket to Stoneman. He dropped one a bit short, it seemed to hit a crack and it slammed into Stoneman’s little finger and dislocated it. It might not have been pace like fire, but it looked quick enough, and while Stoneman batted on, he did so while not holding the bat correctly, and only added 19 more runs.***Jason Holder picked up his second wicket when Tom Westley fell for 8•Getty ImagesAlmost all aspects of West Indies’ cricket at Edgbaston were terrible. They were poor in the field, their bowlers didn’t do their jobs, they used bizarre tactics, and on the final day, they lost a wicket about as regularly as the Victoria Line tube arrives in rush hour. While Holder couldn’t be blamed for all of that, all game long he did virtually nothing to better any of it.West Indies in this game have been much better in every facet, bar catching. But there was a time when it all looked like falling apart. England were one-down, the sun was out, the ball was doing a little, but not enough, and while Stoneman and Westley were playing for this win, and their futures, neither looked willing to budge.But it was a communication error that brought out the worst fielding of the game. Stoneman always wanted two, Westley never seemed to notice, and so when the throw came in, all Devendra Bishoo had to do was take the throw, take the bails off, and collect the easiest run out in history. Instead Bishoo fumbled, and not just any old fumble, but one that coughed the ball up away from the stumps. He scurried after it, turned and fired, and missed the stumps. Bishoo managed to miss two run-outs in one ball.The next over featured another comical fumble, yet again the West Indian failures seemed like an airborne virus. But in that same over, Holder suddenly found Westley in his sights. Three straight balls, just outside off stump, were followed up by the most obvious sucker ball you’ll have seen in a while. Westley threw his hands at the ball, and Holder’s figures were 11-2-17-2.***Jason Holder had about as bad a game as you can possibly have at Edgbaston. He took a pity wicket, didn’t capitalise on the pink-ball “witching hour”, completely buggered up the second new ball, captained as if cricket tactics were a seven-dimension Rubik’s cube and then failed twice with the bat.Most of this was overlooked as the entirety of the West Indies team was so damn terrible.Today one of our #PoliteEnquiries, from @BarneyT10676, asked: “what exactly is it that Jason Holder brings to the Windies? gentle bowling & average to poor batting ?” And on paper, it is hard to know. Coming into this Test, he took a wicket every 88 balls, Joe Root takes one every 96 balls. In 24 Tests he had 42 wickets, making him at best the fifth option with the ball. With the bat, he has one hundred, but only averages 29 runs. Even as a captain, you could argue that Darren Sammy (sorry, two-time World T20-winning captain Darren Sammy) is roughly the same player, but with far more experience and a better win-loss ratio (albeit against weaker opponents).Holder looks like the sort of person who only gets the job because there are issues with the better players, or there are no better players available, and finds himself not quite qualified for any job, and having to do all of them.But there is one thing that Holder does – he fights. He was the leader when West Indies won their first overseas Test against a top-eight side in nine years. There was no way his team was going to be as poor under him again as they had been at Edgbaston. When West Indies dropped Joe Root for the second consecutive innings, right after making a match-winning knock the match before, Holder went at him.It should have been one of the greatest mismatches in modern cricket, the medium-fast (at best) Holder who averages less than two wickets at Test, up against one of the Big Four. To make matters worse, the movement from the pitch had gone, and Holder was starting to leak a boundary every over. And yet, just after another bad ball, one of the slowest seamers in world cricket nipped one into Root’s pads. It looked plumb, but Root reviewed. Root won, and later Holder would go within millimetres of taking Dawid Malan as well.Today Jason Holder made 43 runs and took 2 for 44, on paper it didn’t look like much. But for West Indies, it was a lot. Holder is certainly not a perfect cricketer, he is not even a top Test cricketer, at best he’s a battler, at worst a bandage. But today he had to stand up. He did, over and over again.

A new collection of essays celebrates the companions you play with

Nicholas Hogg23-Apr-2016Cricket is a team sport made up of individual performances, and Stephen Chalke, editor of , a collection of essays from 27 cricketers on their favourite team player, acknowledges this in his introduction with a quote from John Arlott: “Cricket is the loneliest game of all.”Any of us who have played the game at any level may have felt that isolation in the corner of a changing room. You might have dropped the catch that lost the match, run out your star batsman a few runs shy of his ton, or simply got stuck in traffic on the way to the ground and forced your comrades to take the field a player short.Or, like Kevin Pietersen, you may have texted the opposition captain your own skipper’s batting weaknesses. That the great KP debate should even get a mention in such a warm and wonderful collection as this may surprise some readers, but Chalke and fellow editor John Barclay were inspired by the debacle to look for something more uplifting when talking about team spirit. In their wisdom they asked 27 cricketers “to write about team-mates with whom they enjoyed playing, and to reflect on what those team-mates gave to their fellow cricketers that was positive”.The resulting essays, by those ranging from Test match legends to journeymen club players, evoke what cricketing skills and character traits make that particular player’s name first on the team sheet.Fittingly, Mike Atherton opens with an ode to his old school friend, and later fellow England fast bowler, Angus Fraser. Although Atherton confesses he’s a cynic in the Steve Archibald school of team spirit (“an illusion glimpsed in the aftermath of victory”), he does realise that players born of the same time and cricketing culture will share memories and bond. From their first tour together with a Young England side to Sri Lanka, Atherton and Fraser began to get to know one another, but it wasn’t until they were injured at the same time that a true friendship began in a Nottinghamshire hospital in 1991. Back on the pitch, Atherton was made England captain and delighted to have Fraser back at his disposal, a bowler who always gave “his absolute all in the field”. Did Atherton choose Fraser as the subject of his essay simply because he’s the captain’s sycophant? No, for his old pal was always the first to tell him when he had “behaved foolishly”.So is it honesty and directness, as well as the ability to win matches, that make the ideal team-mate?Fairfield BooksOr the fact that they turn up on time and have a car?Where the professionals in the collection choose legendary match-winners such as Zaheer Abbas, John Lever, Rahul Dravid and Javed Miandad, the amateur player is more likely to choose the bloke with a reliable Ford Escort and the ability to get five out of six deliveries on the track. Sunday-side captains Chalke and Michael Simkins focus on their loyal stalwarts who were never late and could bat, bowl and catch – all three of these skills rare in a full friendly XI, let alone a single player.To highlight his star clubman, Chalke regales the reader with tales of some of the worst team-mates he has come across, including the college lecturer who blocked up an end without scoring for most of the overs before announcing that he “wouldn’t bother to stay for the fielding” if that was okay with the rest of the team.The essays may vary in style, choice of player, and abilities brought to a changing room, but sunny dispositions or steely resolve are common factors. And some players have both. David Gower goes for his old Leicestershire team-mate Brian Davison, a fearless ex-Rhodesian army soldier who could face Sylvester Clarke in a sun hat and then joke about it afterwards with a wine or two. Former England star, and now director of England women’s cricket, Clare Connor, chooses Charlotte Edwards for her remarkable record and infectious love of the game, while Mike Selvey wisely picks two lethal pacemen (better to have them in your team than the opposition), Vincent van der Bijl and the “bull-charging” Wayne Daniel.By starting with such an optimistic premise for a cricketing recollection, the anthology brings out the best in both the writers and the team-mates they write about.Team Mates
Edited by John Barclay and Stephen Chalke
Fairfield Books
192 pages (hardback)

A World Cup 2015 composite XI as selected by ESPNcricinfo staff

Sidharth Monga30-Mar-20151:35

Watch – The composite World Cup team

Twenty-five of ESPNcricinfo staff voted for the team of the tournament. Thirty players got at least one vote. There was no set combination: some teams had only one specialist opener, a few went for two spinners, and one of the nominated XIs didn’t pick a spinner at all – if the champions can do it without one, why not this XI? Mitchell Starc and AB de Villiers were the only two unanimous picks. Mushfiqur Rahim, Hashim Amla, Shaiman Anwar, William Porterfield, MS Dhoni, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Umesh Yadav drew one vote each from those looking beyond the obvious names.The dead heat was for the No. 7 spot, between Corey Anderson and James Faulkner who were tied at 12 votes each. The two did seem to cancel each other out because most of votes seemed to reduce it to a face-off between them whereas Glenn Maxwell enjoyed a free run with 21 votes at No. 6. A special allowance was made for Anderson and Faulkner with a XII being named as opposed to an XI. Other close calls were Martin Guptill edging Shikhar Dhawan out as the second opener by 11 votes to nine. Wahab Riaz and Daniel Vettori sneaked past South Africans Morne Morkel and Imran Tahir, making it all-left-arm attack.Brendon McCullum 24 votes, 328 runs at 36.44, four fifties, strike rate 188.50The leader of the side. Intent will drip off his frame: mouth chewing gum, smile on face, big forearms without an armguard. He will place attacking fields, chase down every ball, take unbelievable catches, do everything within his powers to keep the opposition down to a low target, and then go chase it before the supper break. If the target does happen to be big he will take a big chunk off it in the first five overs.Martin Guptill11 votes, 547 runs at 68.37, two hundreds including a double-hundred, one fifty, strike rate 104.58Highest run-scorer in the tournament. One to take the singles when McCullum is going, and try to play deep, as he did against West Indies in scoring the highest score in a World Cup match, 237. Watch out for the big sixes once he is in, with his head looking down at the pitch and not where the ball has gone, just like Roger Federer playing one of his backhand winners.Kumar Sangakkara21 votes, 541 runs at 108.20, four hundreds, strike rate 105.87, five catches, three stumpingsFour ODI hundreds in a row. Behind only Guptill in runs aggregate. Team’s oldest member, and their most stylish batsman. Apart from playing those long innings, will sledge the hell out of the opposition, and hoodwink an umpire or three.Steven Smith21 votes, 402 runs at 67, one hundred, four fifties, strike rate 91.57Slightly more old-fashioned in his strike rate, he will drive teams to distraction with his shuffle across the stumps and shots into the leg side from wherever he wishes. He will play the big innings in big matches. His last five efforts (most recent first): 56 not out, 105, 65, 72, 95. Also you need somebody with super hearing powers to review edges no one has heard.AB de Villiers25 votes, 482 runs at 96.40, one hundred, three fifties, strike rate 144.31Fast hands AB. Ambidextrous AB. One of the only two unanimous picks. Missed out on fastest World Cup hundred, but added to his collection of fastest ODI fifty and hundred with the fastest 150. Will demolish attacks when given a platform, doubling 35-over scores. Will also bowl an odd over full of bouncers here and there.Glenn Maxwell21 votes, 324 runs at 64.80, one hundred, two fifties, strike rate 182.02, six wickets at 36.33, economy rate of 5.73If AB doesn’t get you Maxi will, with his fast hands and ambidexterity. Sometimes they both will. How will anybody set fields if that happens? Maxwell fell one ball short of notching the fastest World Cup hundred, but did enough to help his side win the World Cup. There won’t be any shortage of confidence with him around.Glenn Maxwell fell one ball short of notching the fastest World Cup hundred, but did enough to help his side win the World Cup•Getty ImagesCorey Anderson12 votes, 14 wickets at 16.71, economy rate of 6.47, 231 runs at 33, two fifties, strike rate 108.45orJames Faulkner12 votes, 10 wickets at 19.70, economy rate of 4.70Both bowl in Powerplays, both pick wickets, both can score crucial runs down the order. Clutch players both. Anderson a better batsman than bowler, Faulkner the other way around. Anderson has better numbers having played the whole tournament, Faulkner took wickets in big matches, and brings with him promise of nerveless finishes with the bat. Not surprisingly both are tied and make it to the XII.Daniel Vettori12 votes, 15 wickets at 20.46, economy rate of 4.04Has pipped the more aggressive options in Tahir and R Ashwin. Will provide control if the ultra-aggressive pace attack begins to go for runs. One-handed overhead catches at third man come as a bonus. If a last-over yorker has to be squeezed out for four in a tense finish, Dan is your man.Wahab Riaz11 votes, 16 wickets at 23, economy rate of 5.56, one fifty with the batEdges out Morne Morkel despite most voters’ knowledge that his selection will make it an all-left-arm attack. Their logic: haven’t seen question marks against all-right-arm attacks. A true left-field pick. Bowled with pace and aggression, including the fastest ball of the tournament and its most rousing spell.Mitchell Starc25 votes, 22 wickets at 10.18, economy rate of 3.50One of the two unanimous picks. Easy job. Ask him to bowl four overs at the top and take a wicket, bowl two in middle overs if there is a partnership, bowl two in the batting Powerplay, and make sure no team scores quick runs in the final few. He will deliver, and he will deliver booming yorkers at 150kmph.Trent Boult23 votes, 22 wickets at 16.86, economy rate of 4.36More orthodox new-ball swing bowler, but will surprise you with that pace from that wiry frame. Ask Sangakkara about his yorkers. Will show endurance in bowling long spells. Will carry with him a copy of should there be a nap enthusiast in the side looking for a pillow.Reserve playersShikhar Dhawan, 9 votes
Imran Tahir, 8 votes
Morne Morkel, 7 votes
Duds XIQuinton de Kock, Tamim Iqbal, Ahmed Shehzad, Eoin Morgan (capt), Umar Akmal, Angelo Mathews, Shahid Afridi, Stuart Broad, Vernon Philander, James Anderson, Kemar Roach.

After catching the eye with his lower-order hitting in the Champions League, David Wiese, likely to debut soon in T20s for South Africa, has set his sights on Kallis’ role

Firdose Moonda01-Aug-2013David Wiese used his degree in internal auditing for just one thing: to conduct a realistic analysis of when he hoped to represent the national team. “After going through the fixtures and looking at where I was at, I made the World Twenty20 in Bangladesh my big goal. I would love to play in that,” he said.His calculations are not far off. The tournament is eight months away and Wiese is on the verge of making his debut for South Africa. They will play ten T20s, including the three on the current tour of Sri Lanka, before mounting their challenge for ICC silverware, and if Wiese features and performs in most of those, he has a strong chance of being in the squad for that competition.But it’s not just clever planning that Wiese relied on to get his opportunity. His career has been almost 20 years in the making. Wiese knew he wanted to play cricket from the age of nine, when he was growing up in the country’s eastern Mpumalanga province, where that kind of ambition was easier said than done.His early years were spent in the farming town of Standerton and he completed high school in the coal-mining hub of Witbank. In neither place can you get specialised cricket coaching, so Wiese had to join the then-travelling cricket clinic, Harry Shapiro’s Cricket Institute.Shapiro studied at the Australian Cricket Academy, where he was let in on trade secrets such as how the academy moulded international cricketers. These days, given Australia’s current decline, some would argue that it is not worth knowing, but in 1995, it was a prestigious qualification to obtain. Shapiro returned home with an advanced coaching certificate and attracted many students. Graeme Smith was one who attended the winter school for seven years running.While the institute offered all-round cricket coaching, it also had specific classes in spin. Wiese, who was “quite short” as a youngster but now towers at 1.91m, wanted to perfect the art and remembers being a “fairly good” schoolboy spinner.As he grew older, taller and started to bowl pace, he was also nearing the end of his formative education and had to move to a big city to study further. Although he had hopes of turning cricket into a career, his parents were adamant he focused on his studies first and sent him to the University of Pretoria with strict instructions to hit the books.

“Before a game, I often go into the middle and get someone to throw to me. Death-hitting is all about confidence, so I like to see that I can clear the rope”

During his first year, Wiese played occasionally for the university’s third team and “even spent two months just on academics”, but he grew restless. His high school coach, Jaco Visagie, was in charge of the provincial union Easterns, and asked Wiese to join them.Playing for Easterns meant driving 60km from Pretoria, in the north of Gauteng province, to Benoni in the east, but it was a sacrifice Wiese was willing to make, even if it meant “writing many tests in the dean’s office because I missed the official sitting”. He made an impact with both bat and ball in his first season, scoring 526 runs at 37.57 and taking 26 wickets at 28.15 in nine first-class matches, and notching up 233 runs at 38.83 from an equal number of List A games.He also graduated that summer but never needed his degree in commerce in a professional capacity because he was contracted to Easterns and then the Titans franchise. ‘It worked pretty well that way,” Wiese said.Wiese was a reliable performer, especially in the shorter formats but was lost in the glut of quality players Titans churned out. AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis, the Morkel brothers, and to an extent Roelof van der Merwe, Farhaan Behardien and Marchant de Lange are all from the franchise.What Wiese needed was an eye-catching performance to separate him from the rest. He did that in October 2012, smashing 61 off 28 balls for Titans in the Champions League Twenty20 semi-final against Sydney Sixers. His power-hitting earned him praise, and social media was abuzz with calls for Wiese to fill the void that Lance Klusener’s absence had left in South Africa’s limited-overs’ teams for long.It would be simplistic to think Wiese was selected on that performance alone but there is no doubt it helped. His overall T20 strike rate is a massive 172.46 and he takes a wicket every three overs or so in the format. In South Africa’s Emerging Players’ T20 tour of Namibia in April, he had the highest average among the batsmen, 111, and the second-highest individual score, 62 not out.He credits the sudden explosion in his batting prowess and heightened consistency with the ball to the influence of former Titans coach Matthew Maynard, who spent two seasons with the franchise. “Matthew brought maturity to the team,” Wiese said. “He wasn’t a headmaster coach, and that’s what a lot of us needed. At the kinds of ages a lot of our guys are at, mid-20s, we’re not children anymore. It’s about taking ownership of your own career.”Maynard is also recognised as the man who helped du Plessis develop his longer-form batting for Test cricket, and who oversaw much of de Lange’s development. With Wiese, he focused on specific skills like lower-order big-hitting.Wiese learned to mould himself into a finisher through specific drills. “When I started playing, I didn’t see myself in that way but at some point I just started hitting the ball harder, so I thought it’s something I can work on,” he said. “Before a game, I often go into the middle and get someone to throw to me. Death-hitting is all about confidence, so I like to see that I can clear the rope.”Wiese concentrated on improving himself in that discipline, because he saw a gap in the market, just as he has in the allrounder role.While David Miller is the main contender for South Africa’s end-of-innings-blaster, there is still a lack of a seam bowling two-in-one player a la Shaun Pollock. Ryan McLaren has done the job in recent times, and Chris Morris has also staked a claim, but Wiese hopes he can give them some competition.”Having an allrounder in the team always adds balance and I am working to be classified as one of the best,” he said. His advantage, he thinks, could come from his fitness. Unlike McLaren and Morris, Wiese has not been injured, which he puts down to his late blooming as a pace bowler. “The later you start bowling quickly, the better for your body,” he said.Wiese gives credit to his former Titans coach Matthew Maynard (sitting, right) for the new consistency in his game•Getty ImagesHe is also eyeing the role in the longer format, which he hopes people will remember he still plays. Wiese averaged over 40 with the bat in first-class matches in 2010-11, and he has bowled long spells in the domestic competition, both of which support his claim that he is not a specialist limited-overs man. “Jacques Kallis will probably retire in the next few years and I think there will definitely be a place for an allrounder in the side. But there’s a lot of cricket to come before I can think of that.”For now, the T20 series in Sri Lanka presents an opportunity for Wiese to take the step up to international level. Knowing he was the only new cap in the squad, he prepared meticulously for the tour with new Titans coach, Rob Walter, who was South Africa’s fielding and fitness coach for several years.Walter’s one-on-ones and the knowledge he has gained from seasoned professionals like Martin van Jaarsveld, whose “influence was instrumental”, ensured Wiese was adequately prepped before he flew out last Sunday. So far it seems to have paid off.He was in good spirits after his first training session, though slightly overwhelmed, and posted this message on Twitter after his first training session, “It was quite an experience but awesome to watch and learn from a great bunch of guys.” If all goes to plan, the World Twenty20 could be a chance to for him to show how much he has learned.

This Australian side is an enormous distance from being a great team, or even a very good one, but it has shown willingness to work hard and scrap heartily for success

Daniel Brettig in Galle02-Sep-2011Don Argus’ review cut to the heart of Australian cricket. Two weeks later in Sri Lanka, its effect feels akin to that of a defibrillator: the heart is now beating more strongly than it has for quite some time.On a strip of dirt that used to be a cricket pitch, Michael Clarke’s Australia turned the weapon of the home side’s conditions back on the opposition, reaching the cusp of a series lead with the most focused and professional team performance for quite some time. There has been no grumbling about subcontinent subterfuge, only a fierce and sustained push for the result.In searching for a better Australian display, the mind is cast back to the fourth Ashes Test at Headingley in 2009, or to the series victory in South Africa that preceded it. Complete Australian Test victories against noteworthy opposition really have been that few and far between in recent years. To illustrate the point, it is shaping as Australia’s first Test win in the subcontinent since a 2-0 series defeat of Bangladesh in 2006.Any doubt about the direction of the match had been removed on the second evening by Clarke, who played an innings as resonant as any he has managed since the 151 on his Test debut in Bangalore seven years ago. Using the width of the crease against the spiteful turn, Clarke made the second highest score of the match, and in doing so contributed the sort of innings his predecessors would have looked on fondly.A great captain’s innings does not have to be a century, and Clarke’s was redolent of the fighting 56 by Ian Chappell in Bob Massie’s match at Lord’s in 1972, or Allan Border’s statement-of-intent 66 at Headingley in 1989. On each occasion the innings was as significant for its tone as its tally, helping a developing team grow surer after the captain’s example. Border and Chappell had pace and seam to contend with, but Clarke made his name against spin and strongly enhanced it here.Thus fortified, the Australian tail dragged the innings out on the third morning. Usman Khawaja has passed 20 in each of his four innings for Australia, and did so again in the company of Ryan Harris. His technique fully tested by the pitch and the bowling, Khawaja again showed plenty of determination, and evidence that he had taken lessons from his first innings trials. Harris, Trent Copeland and Nathan Lyon then drove the Sri Lankans to a state of some distraction, as 98 runs were added for the final four wickets. Much as a team’s discipline, commitment and unity can be read from its displays in the field, so too can strong morale be interpreted from the tail’s willingness to stick around. In Sri Lanka’s first innings, the final seven wickets fell for 18 runs.The home side’s troubles are varied, stemming from convoluted board politics and a selection panel that seems at odds with the wishes of the team. Tillakaratne Dilshan’s captaincy has left something to be desired from the moment he lost the toss, so handing the best of heavily slanted conditions to his opponents. The Australians were able to eke out more runs than the surface merited in each innings, helped in part by the fact that Dilshan is still developing his skills in manoeuvring the bowlers and the field. It is not always easy, and Dilshan is less of a natural than his counterpart. As a batsman, he was defeated by his own impetuosity in the first innings, then looked out of sorts and out of ideas in the second.Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, meanwhile, defended their wickets grimly in the second innings but seemed preoccupied by suspicion that Copeland was running on the pitch. Jayawardene in particular was animated in his complaints. The sight of the home side’s most senior players squabbling with the umpires and the opposition over the protection of a surface that should have suited them illustrated the difference between Sri Lanka’s approach and Australia’s. The unsteady hosts have an almighty task ahead to avoid surrendering the No. 4 spot in the ICC rankings.This Australian side is an enormous distance from being a great team, or even a very good one, but it has shown willingness to work hard and scrap heartily for success in drastically unfamiliar climes. Clarke’s first victory as captain will be celebrated by the team but Argus and his review panel will have equal reason to rejoice. A system they found moribund has received its long overdue shake, and now the way ahead is clear.

So breathtaking was Gilchrist’s assault that he smashed 10 sixes during his 48-ball innings and achieved the Deccan Chargers’ maiden victory of the tournament with 44 balls to spare

Cricinfo staff27-Apr-2008
Gilchrist scored 77 runs on the leg side and nine of his ten sixes came between long leg and long-on © Cricinfo
Had Adam Gilchrist been allowed to bat longer, he would almost certainly have broken Brendon McCullum’s record of 13 sixes in the opening game of the IPL. So breathtaking was Gilchrist’s assault that he smashed ten sixes during his 48-ball innings and achieved the Deccan Chargers’ maiden victory of the tournament with 44 balls to spare. His 109 not out was his first Twenty20 score above 50, the IPL’s fastest century, and the third-fastest in all Twenty20 matches.It shouldn’t surprise many, for Gilchrist had nearly broken Viv Richards’ record for the fastest Test century against England in Perth in 2006. Richards’ record was 56 balls, Gilchrist did it in 57. He later broke the record for the highest score in a World Cup final when he ransacked Sri Lanka for 149 off 104 balls. And today, in front of a full house at the DY Patil Stadium, Gilchrist left his ominous mark on the Twenty20 format, smashing his previous highest score of 48.He took full advantage of a bowling attack that was low on confidence after three successive losses and perhaps tired, having played their third game this week inside five days. The suspension of Harbhajan Singh and the continued absence of Sachin Tendulkar heightened their problems even though Shaun Pollock, the stand-in captain, refused to single out the pair’s absence as an “excuse”.Gilchrist, however, wasn’t about to sympathise. He had to inspire his own team who, despite a formidable batting line-up, had endured three straight defeats. His job was made easier by the Deccan bowlers who restricted Mumbai to a below-par 154. And once Mumbai’s bowlers began to feed him short deliveries, Gilchrist feasted.Even Pollock, the former South Africa captain, buckled and made seven bowling changes inside the first ten overs. It didn’t matter for Gilchirst treated everyone the same way. Pollock was smashed for 23 in an over, Abhishek Nayar for 22, young offspinner Siddharth Chitnis for 12, and Dwayne Bravo got hit for over ten twice.Gilchrist traumatised the Mumbai bowlers and carted them over the leg side even if the length was only a fraction short. He scored 77 runs on the leg side and nine of his ten sixes came between long leg and long-on, courtesy a shuffle towards the off side and a full and fast swing of his bat.Unlike McCullum, whose 158 against Bangalore Royal Challengers had some streaky shots, Gilchrist’s strokes were extremely well hit. Like a good writer, who banks on brevity, Gilchrist’s batting is minimalist. He judges the length quickly and then needs to decide where to dispatch the ball.Gilchrist’s dominance was total. Within an hour, Deccan had scored 100, 77 of which had come from Gilchrist. VVS Laxman, the Deccan captain, was a happy spectator at the other end and said later that Gilchrist was “unstoppable” and he was lucky not having to worry setting fields for him.Each time the IPL has had uncertainty hanging over it, a brilliant performance by a player has overshadowed the questions. When people wondered whether the tournament would be a success, McCullum provided a pyrotechnic start. And now when the Harbhajan Singh-Sreesanth controversy was taking centrestage, Gilchrist has shifted the focus back to cricket in the best way possible.

Former Australia captain Aaron Finch has suggested that the future of the BBL could be for Sydney Thunder and Melbourne Renegades to relocate rather than introduce any new teams to the competition.Finch, who retired from professional cricket earlier this month after being a single-club player with Renegades, also believes the overseas draft must be dropped to allow clubs to sign players directly before they are snapped up by rival leagues.It was reported in newspapers last week that the ACT are pushing for a new BBL team to be based in Canberra but Finch thinks that would spread players too thinly.Related

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“I think we’re already a bit thin at the moment with the talent pool to get another side in,” he told ESPN’s . “I think the obvious one is the Sydney Thunder, they move to Canberra, and think the Melbourne Renegades eventually will move to Geelong. And think that would then start to develop a bigger fan base. It makes sense to be personally.”Meanwhile, Finch would like to see the draft abolished so that the BBL wasn’t scrambling with player availability. All the finalists in this year’s tournament lost key players to the ILT20 because those deals had been signed earlier. The league has already indicated it is looking for solutions.”The draft needs to go,” Finch said. “To have the draft so late in the year, people are already committed to the other leagues because they are able to sign direct with teams so then you get Adelaide Strikers and Brisbane Heat, where guys are going off to play other tournaments because they are already committed to it. Let teams be able to sign players now. If Sam Billings wants to sign for Brisbane Heat or Melbourne Renegades, I don’t think it should matter.”Moving either Thunder or Renegades out of their current respective cities appears highly unlikely, partly because of the value of the four derby matches it allows each season, although Finch is not the first to suggest that Thunder relocate. Ricky Ponting said it may be in their best interests to play in Canberra in order to move away from the often difficult and slow Sydney Showground surface.Following those comments by Ponting, Thunder captain Chris Green was strong in defence of their current home.”We’re the Sydney Thunder, this is where we like to play. This is our home ground. This is where we’re from, the west of Sydney,” Green said. “I’d hate to see us move down [to Canberra] permanently. I like staying at home, playing at home, having my family come and watch me play. This is our home base.”This season the one match that took place in Geelong was abandoned after seven overs due to a dangerous pitch.Finch was also of the view the tournament remained too long. “You’re not attracting the best players in the world for the money that we pay when you can go to South Africa or go to the ILT20 and earn just as much money for two and a half or three weeks,” he said. “Keep condensing it, because people want to play in the best competition but if it’s six weeks even, that’s a long time over Christmas to be away from family.”This season’s BBL, which will have lasted seven weeks, saw a five-day break when the Perth Test was staged due to that being broadcast at primetime onto the east coast, something CA hopes to avoid in future seasons, while there will also be a bigger window for Australia Test players to appear with the final Test of the summer to be in the first week of January.

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O jogador foi contratado pelos dirigentes alvinegros nesta janela de transferências, mas só deve atuar no segundo semestre deste ano. O uruguaio tem contrato noMontevideo Wanderers até maio, depois retorna para jogar no Glorioso.

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With the 2026 World Cup just 10 months away, Mexico will face Japan and South Korea in the September FIFA window

• Gilberto Mora and Israel Reyes omitted
• Hirving Lozano and Diego Lainez return
• Julián Quiñones also left out

• AFP
  

  WHAT HAPPENED?

  Javier Aguirre’s squad announcement for Mexico’s September friendlies has sparked heavy debate among pundits, who argue the national team coach should no longer be experimenting or leaving out players many see as indispensable.

  “Why is Juan José Purata there and not Ramón Juárez? Why is Israel Reyes missing when he’s been playing well with América? Sepúlveda, really? And Quiñones should also be in,” said ESPN analyst Javier Alarcón on Futbol Picante.

  Former Mexico striker Jared Borgetti added: “We wonder about these absences because maybe he already has certain names locked in for the World Cup and wants to test others. But leaving out Israel Reyes is strange. You’ve got the same centerbacks: Johan Vásquez, César Montes, Edson Álvarez… so the decisions don’t make much sense.”

  Alarcón doubled down: “Aguirre has every right to do what he wants. But Israel Reyes can play right back, centerback, even as a holding midfielder. I think he’s already proven his value.”

  Ex-director and pundit Ricardo Peláez also questioned Aguirre for calling up Tigres’ Purata over Chivas’ Luis Romo: “I think he wants to see Berterame instead of Ángel Sepúlveda.”

  Mario Carrillo insisted: “Luis Romo should be there and should even start. Israel Reyes has shown international quality with América, so he has to be in the squad. And you can’t just erase Tecatito Corona either. On the left you’ve got Jesús Gallardo locked in, but on the right, what’s the plan? Julián Araujo and Jorge Sánchez? Now he’s calling up the Huescas brothers.”

  On FOX Sports, criticism centered around the omission of 16-year-old Gilberto Mora, who is currently being considered for Mexico’s U20 World Cup squad.

  “In Spain, even Lamine Yamal isn’t always called up – but unlike Barcelona, Mexico doesn’t have that many players of Mora’s level,” argued Raoul Ortiz. “At 16 he’s already showing elite quality. Facing Japan and South Korea would do him more good than the U20 World Cup.”

  Gustavo Mendoza added: “If you host a good World Cup, you’ll sell at least five players to Europe. Mora has to be in the senior team conversation.”

  Christian ‘Chaco’ Giménez, father of Milan striker Santiago Giménez, also weighed in. “We need to know if there was a conversation between Aguirre and Mora, and whether Mora himself chose to prioritize the U20 World Cup.”

  As for Julián Quiñones, pundits pointed out that his form in Saudi Arabia isn’t being valued enough by the coaching staff.

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  FULL ROSTER

  Goalkeepers: Luis Ángel Malagón, Raúl Rangel, Carlos Moreno

  Defenders: Rodrigo Huescas, Jorge Sánchez, César Montes, Johan Vásquez, Juan Sánchez Purata, Jesús Gallardo, Mateo Chávez, Jesús Orozco

  Midfielders: Edson Álvarez, Erik Lira, Marcel Ruiz, Carlos Rodríguez, Orbelín Pineda, Erick Sánchez

  Forwards: Roberto Alvarado, Diego Lainez, César Huerta, Raúl Jiménez, Santiago Giménez, Hirving Lozano, Alexis Vega, Germán Berterame

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  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  Among the newcomers, Tigres defender Juan José Sánchez Purata could make his international debut after a strong start to the Liga MX season – though his call-up has been heavily criticized.

  Monterrey striker Germán Berterame, who already featured in a previous friendly, is also back in the mix, but it remains unclear whether he will be part of Aguirre’s long-term plans. Meanwhile, the return of Hirving Lozano and the omission of Julián Quiñones also drew criticism from the Mexican media.

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  WHAT NEXT FOR MEXICO NATIONAL TEAM?

  Mexico’s packed friendly schedule kicks off in September, with matches against Japan on Sept. 6 at Oakland Coliseum and South Korea on Sept. 9 at Geodis Park in Nashville.